Many sensing approaches allow environmental changes to be sensed at or near a device. The use of motion sensors and photosensors, for instance, may allow motion and light to be measured, respectively, while other approaches may be directed to sensing other types of environmental changes, such as gestures. One manner in which gestures may be measured involves the use of capacitive sensing, where capacitance of the human body is sensed and/or measured by a dedicated capacitive sensor. In this manner, proximity, position, and acceleration of a person may all be measured.
Various approaches for sensing environmental changes in home environments have been developed, but providing an unobtrusive, low-cost, and/or low-maintenance solution has proven difficult. In some approaches, for example, systems rely on use of cameras to sense environmental changes, but are limited in that environmental changes may only be sensed in a camera's line of sight. Other approaches have relied on touch sensors and/or requiring a device to be worn, however, these approaches have also been problematic. Touch sensors require a relatively high number of sensors, which can result in expensive and time-consuming installation costs as well as difficult maintenance, and requiring a device to be worn in a home environment is often impractical.